The Year 2007

For some, a picture may not be worth a thousand words, so here’s the scoop on The Rhodens.

This marks my 14th year at UGA. I would never have dreamed that I would stay on a secular campus this long, but I’ve become accustomed to the paycheck and can’t seem to divorce myself from it, even though I would much rather be writing or doing any number of things on the computer. I buy books that I never read and have an arsenal of crafts that may dry rot before I retire. I think I would spend the rest of my life photographing anything that would stand still long enough for my digital to capture it. I love looking through the camera lens and immortalizing, in frame, the things that strike my fancy…”and I say to myself, what a wonderful world.”

We have started traveling internationally and have found ourselves in Aruba, Switzerland, Mexico, Chile and most recently China. Next year we visit Austria and the Dalmatian Coast. Gordon promises soon to take me to Prince Edward Island so I can pretend to be Anne of Green Gables. In addition, last year we visited Pasadena, Tucson, Portofino Island and New York City at Christmas (which happened to coincide with the Party at Pansy’s house last year.)

Our most recent North American travel has taken us to the frozen north of Chicago, where Joy and Bobby absconded with two of my grandchildren, Nicholas (10) and Anelise (8). I grieved for a year before they moved, but have since resolved in my mind that I should share them with the natives of Illinois.

Bobby was chosen for a high powered Associate VP position with CN (Canadian National) Railway as Chief of Security. He’s in Miami this week hobnobbing with executives. He just returned from a trip to Detroit during the United Auto Worker’s strike. Joy can now enjoy being a stay-at-home-mom and spend more time emailing pictures of my adorable grandchildren, shopping and exercising her entrepreneurial spirit.

Joy continues to be the spark at any party and is the electricity that surges through any environment in which she finds herself. (Chicago is lucky that we were willing to share her!) I miss them all terribly, but we’re flying up, again, for Nicholas’s birthday next week. (Don’t tell. It’s a surprise!) We were just there in September for Anelise’s birthday. I don’t think that’s obsessive, do you?

Nicholas is an avid golfer and regularly beats both his dad and his Papa. He is also a terrific football and baseball player and played in the playoffs for his team in Naperville. He played on a team of 12 year olds (and my resident statistician reminded me that he got two interceptions in the same game).

Anelise is currently taking ice skating lessons, but her favorite sport is shopping. Though Anelise is not an avid reader, the book she recently purchased was a copy of “How To Become A Princess”. We thought she “wrote” the book on that subject, but apparently not. She continues to charm and intrigue us on a regular basis.

Jill decided to stretch her wings and exchange her job at UGA for a position at the Gwinnett University Center, kidnapped my remaining grandson, Jarrod (12) and moved to Lawrenceville. They’re only an hour away, but it feels like a journey.
Jill continues to exercise her talents of patience and perserverance as she raises a pre-teen and explores the world of hip-hop, MySpace and yes, girls. She continues to grow as the mother of a son who is hearing impaired. Jill is a professional encourager and excels at friendship. She is the only person I know who can become a best friend standing in line with a stranger at the supermarket. You think I’m kidding. Jill excels in encouraging everyone with whom she speaks and has a habit of giving what she needs to receive to the people who need to receive it more.

Jarrod has excelled even more than any of the professionals ever thought he could. Of course, we knew that he was exceptional, and all lobbied for him from the time we learned of his disability when he was two. Jarrod is a talented artist and loves sports. If asked, football is his favorite and Auburn is his pick in the SEC. We think he may have been switched at birth, and Aunt Jeannine has threatened to disown him until he repents.

Jeannine moved back to Georgia after having been in Jacksonville and a production assistant for PGA Tour Productions. She secured a position with The DeMoss Group, a Christian Public Relations firm in Duluth, and has recently moved to Buckhead, where she enjoys the life of a yuppie. The roof of her condo sports an observation binocular that allows you to see Stone Mountain, Kennesaw Mountain and a killer view of the ATL skyline. Jeannine has dated more guys than most girls will ever meet. On her cell phone, rather than saying leave a message, it says “take a number”. Without exception, Jeannine can outdo the average male in the realm of sports trivia. She’s the only girl at a fall wedding who spends the majority of the reception in her car listening to a UGA ballgame (that is, if she even went to the wedding instead of going to the game). She’s the boy we never had with a flair for the feminine. Try that one on for size.

Gordon continues to reinvent himself and has built a business from, well, “scratch”. His success has afforded us the opportunity to travel and to prepare for retirement, during which time we plan to enjoy the fruits of his labor. It has been fascinating to watch the re-formation of this man who never ceases to amaze me. He dabbles at golf, gives it up, takes it up again…then swears off of it for good. He is currently on the golf course, giving up the game.

All in all, we’re pretty good for the shape we’re in, and we’re blessed beyond measure with the things that matter most: family, health and a “future that is as bright as the promises of God". (11/4/07)